INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

We're north of Indy and have a mixed flock. This is our third year. BTW, I am a veterinarian and do PT testing for NPIP certification, and also split my ginormous bottle of antigen with folks who do their own testing. Message me if I can help.

Welcome!

Quote: Calls are tiny and just precious! ducks are a bit more work unless you have a lot of land and a pond. Just 2-3 is not bad at all however. I don't recommend keeping them in with your flock unless they are willing to accept new birds. Keep in mind also, a drake will kill a chicken from internal injuries if he mates her. I have never had the issue with the muscovy, but other duck breeds, like pekin have killed 2 of my hens.

Lost my first chick to my sons dog. We gave them leftover noodles and I guess the dogs couldn't resist, dug under the fence and pulled a silkie out

I am so sorry.

I am looking for some hatching eggs in Southwestern Indiana. Preferably non-hatchery, pure bred standard size chickens. I like dual purpose chickens, but I would be willing to consider anything! Please let me know if you have anything you would sell. I live 30 min north of Evansville. I am willing to drive a bit to pick these up.

Thanks!

If someone has what you are looking for further away, chickenfest is saturday the 19th. Maybe an "egg train" can be arranged!

North Eastern Indiana here.

Lost another layer last night...

I didn't think she was missing, but there are too many feathers for it to just be a "feather snatch"... Boo on hawks!!

I am so sorry to hear.

Ugh, it's been a busy hot week so far.

I thought I was going to have a sad post about losing my favorite chicken yesterday. Cheeks, my nicely bearded EE was missing. No feathers, nothing. After catching so many critters, I thought maybe one got smart and got her. (And so sorry to hear about the recent losses that a few have posted. It's tough.)

SO I go to throw them some cereal that had just gone past human consumption quality and all the sudden I see this chicken fly out of some weeds and then land just outside the fence. It is Cheeks! She relieves herself (a large one...sorry) and comes running into the chicken yard for treats. So I think, well she was hiding, but then I'm thinking, no something else is going on here.

I got 3 eggs from her starting Father's Day and then have had NOTHING since. I was not happy to see that the only layer had stopped laying. After 3 days. I walk around the area where Cheeks flew out of and nestled into a dug out part tree rooting is a pile of eggs!


There are 19. 19! So Cheeks has been laying consistently for a few weeks. I go tell my DM and DF the good news. How I got a broody EE after +/- 22 layed eggs, I don't know. And Ozzy, my adopted Birchen Marans is her main squeeze and he is on her all the time. Ornery Roo!




And here she is settled over (almost all) 19 eggs. I marked them, but I am going to move her today so I will candle them at that point. Hopefully she transitions ok.

And then I will patiently be waiting to see what comes out!!

So will a Marans X EE be Olive Eggers? Granted Chewie, the black Cochin hasn't had his way. Probably not, Ozzy is pretty selfish of her.

OE's it is! Awesome, congrats!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So I have been a BYC stalker for a while now and I JUST found out about these "local" pages. How cool is this!

Jump right in! We have a lot of fun here, and keep it friendly

Anything goes, its ok to talk about a wedding or kids graduation too. If you keep other livestock, poultry, waterfowl. Only rule is keep chat family clean per BYC guidelines.

So have any of you ever had a chicken with chronic sinus issues? Lily one of my 9 month old silkies has had about 4 bouts of half her face swelling up and sometimes her eye waters. I have given her tylan orally and it knocks it out each time, but comes back a couple months later. She eats and drinks fine, doesnt act lethargic, and the vet I consulted the first time it happened said it didn't sound like mycoplasmosis. None of my other birds have ever had this. She gets it after a long stretch of wet weather or if it is really dusty. I didn't think chickens could get chronic sinusitis, but thats really what it seems like. Its only one side at a time. I winder if maybe her sinus are deformed somehow. Her face was swollen again today, so I did our usual eye drops, vet rx on the comb nostrils under wings and throat, and Im waiting to administer atibiotics to see if the other two things will help on their own. I don't want to keep giving her the anti's because I think they have already stunted her. She is my only pullet never to lay an egg, and she is very petite. Not a lot of muscle tone, which is a side effect of tylan. I just thought I would put this out there to see if any of you all have had the same issue.

You know I have had with a turkey hen! The only bird here that had the issue. She was hatched from an egg here, along with most of my other birds. She is doing great now and has had no further issues, but I do not sell her eggs or poults. Her tom lost an eye as a poult so they make a good pair, lol! My white turkey hen also lives with them, so that pen is for family food production only. Its frustrating, if the air is dry its fine, but pollen, cold and damp weather always gives her problems.
As a precaution, my mature BR turkey pen is all the way at the other end of our property. Not taking any chances.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Welcome to the new members - everyone here are great !
Sorry for the members that have had chickie losses lately -
we lost another 3 or 4 today. while DW & i were at work, our neighbor had to chase off a stray dog 3 different times from attacking our birds. 1 RSL dead; 1 Chantecler dead; our silver Iowa Roo is pretty mangled, but still breathing (hopefully will recover, but doubtful); & 1 IaB pullet still missing. 3rd dog attack in a year . Wont bore everyone about this - whats done is done. We let our birds free-range during the day & dont feel it's fair to them to keep them confined, so we know the risks & concequences.

Agreed! I let mine free range all day. Pen up at night. Stray dogs are my huge pet peeve and I get pretty irate! I lost a baby goat several years ago due to stay dogs. Drug it right thru a closed gate on a 6 ft chain link fence. Killed it and left it lay. Turned and went after my Dad, he pelted them with rocks from the driveway! Very irresponsible of anyone to leave dogs unsupervised and unsecured.

The 3 kiddos - 9 weeks old. (Swedish Flower Hens)


3 HAPPY KIDDOS (They're happy because they don't have crests )

Adorable!

Quote:
Good question! I am curious too.

Quote: I am really thinking about one so I can move range area for the smaller birds. Before last winter trashed my electric fence, it was really nice to have.

 

[kabhyper1]

Early hatchers tonight. Not due until tomorrow. 2 of 3 out. Ones working on it still.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

All has been quiet on my front. My broody is still happily camped out on her eggs. T-15 days until hatch! I had to put a second Bielie cockerel down a couple of days ago. My neighbor said it seemed as though his neck was broken, he was still walking around fine but something was not at all right with his neck and head, it was very strange and I couldn't find anything online that looked similar. Good thing the breeder sent me two extra boys! Now I am down to the one.

Speaking of that one, I saw Heiser attempting to maul his first lady yesterday, so I know we are getting close there! Bielie roos have to be some of the most gorgeous out there and he is getting spectacular!!! I can't wait until I can hatch some babies!

Swoon!!!



My latest task has been to make compost "tea" to fertilize my many plants, trees and shrubs. I did about 40 plants yesterday and have about 300 left. Yikes!

Super sorry for everyone's losses and excited to see all the new people finding the thread! I hope you can attend chickenfest!

Goodness, he is stunning!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Just saw the comment asking how long ducks lay for. My oldest ducks are breeder quality khaki ducks and are 1 yr old. I was told they will lay almost every day for 4 years so until they are about 4.5 yrs old. The ones I got from the hatchery, I'm estimating a 3 yr consistent laying period.
I keep debating if I want to replaace a third of my flock each year and basically keep 3-4 breeds of ducks. Then I could replace 1 breed each year.
Duck eggs are amazing. But they do require more effort. More cleaning and more refilling the water. Winter is way more work for the ducks, but this year the ducks will be in their own coop. Last year I only had 2 and they made a mess of our largest chicken area. Still even with the extra work they caused, DH asked for more ducks. That says a lot to me. He has not asked for more hens. He has not said no more hens either though.

Good points! I may have more interest in the khaki's now reading this. The pekin are a fast grower, but I have had egg eating issues with them, and cant free range them with my chicken hens unsupervised.

Quote:

excellent point!

As far as the proposed Indy regulations go. I'd like to offer some perspective, some of which I gained attending the meeting of the Lawrence town council.

If you read through the rest of the literature, the livestock portion is a small fraction of the re-zoning initiative underway, not the focus. And it looks like they are trying to get out in front of the Urban Farming trend/revolution by putting regs in place to encourage it, not discourage it. As our friends in many other areas are finding out, it is much harder to fight an existing reg than to implement a new one. The Indy Rezone group appears to be trying to get agriculture friendly regulations on the books before overly restrictive ones are placed there. Also, compared to pretty much any other ‘chicken’ restrictions I have seen, the proposed Indy regulations are very liberal. Allowing 24 chickens, including a rooster on any 1/3 acre lot is pretty generous. We own a house on a 1/3 acre lot near Broad Ripple, and that would be a lot of chickens for that space. For contrast, the city of Lawrence was looking at allowing 3 for that space and 6 for larger lots. With no roosters period.

That being said, do I wish there was no restriction at all, absolutely I do. But we also have to deal with the fact that there will be irresponsible chicken owners just like irresponsible cat and dog owners. The proposal will give officials a base to work from to deal with these people. Welfare of the poultry was a major concern of the Lawrence committee considering their resolution. And it would only take one or two instances of abuse that would galvanize a hasty statute to be put in place that would be much less considered and likely much more restrictive that what is currently proposed.

I do think Indy chicken owners should be very aware and involved with what is going on. The re-zoning is taking place regardless of whether they are involved or not. So take the chance to be involved in constructive conversation with an eye towards encouraging Indy to be a place that WANTS chickens in backyards, not one that is trying to keep them out.

I ran out of ovations, you will sure get one tomorrow for your post! Well said! definitely needs to be approached in a non-combative and educating manner. I for one will make a point to attend this if I have parent care available, it will have a ripple effect on other counties! We had the rezoning here last year, and my handful of neighbors ALL attended. After seeing the councils faces, I knew our presence alone raised eyebrows. My reason for moving here as we did involved having the right to own and keep livestock, and a farm community presence for my kids. I have said numerous times our state capitol even recognizes the importance of it. Lets hope that's not going to change, and make an effort to prevent it.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
Thats a very happy face, holding one big bunbun!!!! Looks like a sweetie too. My lil wild guy is still doing great, but way too tame to release. I never even bothered to see if its a boy or girl lol.

Anyone in Indiana have an austerlop pullet or hen for sale, or know someone who does? Have a friend in new Indiana looking! Thanks

Hi, I might, but am in pendleton, IN. PM if interested. I breed BAs.

Just hatched my first chick from my blue/black silkie/showgirl pen! And it's actually a showgirl! Lol. Can't wait to pull it out of incubator tomorrow after a tolbunt chick hatches who is zipping right now

Congrats! Thats exciting!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

8 days til chickenfest!!!!! Hope everyone can make it!!!

Off to bed, goodnite everyone.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Early hatchers tonight. Not due until tomorrow. 2 of 3 out. Ones working on it still.

Exciting!!! Just saw your post.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Just hatched my first chick from my blue/black silkie/showgirl pen! And it's actually a showgirl! Lol. Can't wait to pull it out of incubator tomorrow after a tolbunt chick hatches who is zipping right now

The tolbunt is hatching?

The white bird here is the one in question. At 12 weeks old, his comb is bigger than some of my adult Wyandotte hens' combs. Notice the Wyandotte beside him with a nice, small, pale comb. He also appears to have saddle feathers, though the picture is blurry when I zoom in so I can't tell for sure. Even so, I have no doubt in my mind this is a boy.

I am with pipd. Cockerel all the way.